Billy Lee Riley Needs Your Help!

Legendary Sun Records mainstay battling bone cancer; bills sucking the well dry. Now it's your turn to help out, rock fans.

By Blurt Staff

Billy Lee Riley may not be a familiar name to all you hoodie/backpack-rockin' hipsters out there - his Memphis-style rockabilly and Sun Records oeuvre is about as far removed from the desolate shores of Brooklyn as it comes - but listen up, punks: with classic ‘50s sides like "Red Hot" and "Flyin' Saucers Rock and Roll" in the man's back catalog, it's safe to say that ROCK AS WE KNOW IT would be a wildly different beast had Ma and Pa Riley never hunched out their sweet little Billy.

We won't belabor the point: just read the man's damn Wikipedia entry if you need to be brought up to speed.

So since you all owe a huge debt to the man, why not consider repaying it in some small fashion? Riley is now in very bad need of help, we are advised, as this following post on the Rockabilly Hall of Fame website outlines:

Billy has had his share of health problems, and is now battling Stage FOUR bone cancer. Although MusiCares is helping with house payment, car and such, he and [wife] Joyce are totally out of money and can barely afford to eat.

This is a CALL FOR HELP to all musicians and fans. Please remember, twenty bucks from all of us would make a HUGE difference in Billy's life! What if this was you?

Let's all get together and send something today to Billy and Joyce and show them that he means a lot to us.

If you have a website, a Facebook or MySpace, please post this need for help on it! We can't save the world, but it will mean a lot in Billy Lee's life!

His Address is:

Billy Lee Riley

723 Crest Drive

Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401